Yet Another Session
by zinerith
Summary: Eight kids are forced to enter a session of Sburb, and have to find a way to beat the game. Told out of the POV of the first kid to enter.
1. Chapter 1

==== Enter

The sky was dark. It was just before morning, but flashes of light fell continuously across the sky. The meteor shower had apparently been going on since about midnight. Not only that, but according to the internet it was a worldwide occurrence. Seemingly coming out of nowhere, the meteors had quickly begun to fall, and there were already reports of multiple catastrophes and explosions all over the place. However, I think I know what happened.

A game called SBURB had been released that midnight. I knew it sounded strange, but somehow I felt that it wasn't a coincidence. Regardless, a few of my friends had agreed to play the game. We were planning to start in the afternoon, but with this development, Jeremy and I decided it would be best to start now. I don't know how, but I had a feeling like it was the best thing to do. Somehow, it could save us.

What we were going to do was simply set up a server-client connection between us, and figure this thing out as fast as we could. Jeremy would be the server player, me the client. Thankfully, he was happy to start the whole thing early.

He had given me his phone number a while ago, and I had called him as we both installed out respective parts of the game. Thank goodness for! I had a feeling that stores would be completely sold out of it by now. What made it even better was that SBURB had a great online release date deal! For only today, you could the Client and Server games for $5.00 each! It was a ridiculously better deal than the original $20 dollars for each. A 75% off sale? There was no way we were going to pass that one up!

Anyway, we decided to retire our phones for a little bit, and instead used the Microphone feature on Steam. That client really was handy!

"Alright, let me just connect to you, and… There!" Jeremy's voice echoed into my headphones. A three dimensional cursor appeared next to me, startling my attention. "Whoa! I can see you!"

"Great! That means it's working." I responded. I was looking up on the internet for anything on the game. Surprisingly though, there were very few guides, and none of them were very good. I guessed I would have to figure this out on my own. Ah well.

I got up and unplugged the headphones from my desktop. I really wished I could just use that Laptop that was suppose to me mine. It would make things so much easier!

"Alright." Jeremy's voice resonated from the speakers. I had it on normal volume. After all, my parents were out doing something, so I didn't have to worry about waking them. "So apparently I can deploy stuff into your house? This is odd. Here"

I heard a sound coming from the other side of the glass door next to me, on the deck. I looked over to see what it was, but the doors internal blinds were closed.

"What was that?" I asked, inquisitive. I guess I still didn't fully believe the game could literally alter reality. After all, that was kind of abstract.

"I deployed something called an Alchemiter on your deck. It looks kinda funky. You should look at it!"

I decided that was a good idea and slid open the door to look.

Ok, I have to admit. My first response was "Holy Crap!" and if you've ever played the game, you would probably agree. There, standing on my deck, was a huge square shaped platform, with a circle platform on top of it. A pole-like thing rose from one of the corners that looked like you could place something into a part on it. I seriously didn't know what to think about this. However, no longer was I skeptical about the reality altering effects of this game. Needless to say, I was intrigued.

"What else can you deploy?" I asked.

"Well, there's all sorts of stuff in here, but only a few are free. The rest need something called grist to make."

He paused for a moment, likely shuffling through the options as a server player. I wondered what the GUI looked like for him.

"Hey, how about this?" He asked. The cursor thing came over to me and dropped some sort of card onto the deck below me. I picked it up and looked at it.

It seemed simple enough. It was a plain looking card, but it had a few rectangle shaped holes punched in it. I shrugged and pocketed it. If it was free, it was probably important to the game somehow. Maybe it was used in entering it? I wasn't sure.

I decided to step back inside and close the door. I didn't want to let out the warm air. It was cold outside, being winter and all. Besides, I found the meteor shower sort of unsettling. It was as if I felt a sort of urgency that I must enter the game quickly, or else a meteor somehow causes the end of me.

"Are there any other free machines on there?" I asked. There was a small pause, likely him looking through the options once more.

"Two, actually." He answered, "Here, check this one out! It's called a Totem Lathe."

With that, the cursor came down with this odd sciency looking devise and placed it on the floor in front of the bookshelf in the living room. It resembled a Microscope of some sort, except it was thin, long and tall. It had a bunch of confusing levers and dials on it, and a space that looked as if something fit inside. On closer inspection, I saw that it had a slot on it. In fact, it looked like it was the perfect size for that card I had in my pocket!

Carefully, I took it out and slid it into the hole. It didn't do anything though. Perhaps I needed to place something into the machine first? I took it out and once more put it in my pocket.

"I deployed the other odd looking machine in your basement." Jeremy said, his voice flowing from the computer in the room next to me. "You should check it out!"

Still captivated by this odd looking machine, I wondered what the other one was like. "Alright." I replied, loud enough for the microphone at the computer to pick it up, and with that I began to climb down the stairs.

Sure enough, the first thing I noticed when I reached the bottom was yet another odd looking machine. However, this one looked like a box-like platform with some device on the top. However, at the very top, there was a wheel-like dial below a part that looked like it could screw off. Problem was, the whole thing was trapped behind the pool table.

"Sweet! What is it?" I asked, "Also, is it possible to move it? The pool table is blocking the way."

"Oh, sorry." He responded. "It's a Cruxtruder. Here, I'll just move the pool table."

"Alright." I said. I decided it would be best to sand back. After all, he was going to need someplace to move it, and it really wouldn't help if I was in the way.

The cursor came down ant touched the table. Suddenly, it began to float into the air! To my surprise, it looked as if the heavy thing was being moved with ease. It floated over the device, to the other side of it. However, right before it cleared it, the cursor disappeared. I could only watch as the table fell, clipping the top of the Cruxtruder before clattering to the ground.

Instantly, the top of it popped off, and out came some floating glowing orb! Needless to say, I really had no idea what the crap was going on, so I just stood there, gaping.

The orb flitted about. What even was it? Suddenly, something grabbed my attention and I looked down at the machine once again. To my surprise, a timer was counting down on the side of the box platform at the bottom. 6:34. 6:33. 6:32. 6:31. Was that there before? I didn't think so. It made me slightly uneasy though. I felt as if whatever it was counting down to, I needed to figure out what I was supposed to do before it reached zero.

The glowy orb flew into the storage area and around the corner to the music room. Not knowing what else to do, I followed.

When I arrived, it was flitting about frantically, as if it wanted me to do something. From the guitar, back to me. To the TV, back to me. To the Water bottles, back to me. What did it want me to do?

Slightly confused, I picked up one of the orb lights we keep down there. It was one of those fancy orb lights that changed colors each time you turned it one. There was even a setting that it would flash through all the colors. I decided to just turn it on to a random one. Blue, ok.

I looked back up to see that the glowing orb thing that came from the machine was flying around once again. Would it stop? It was getting sort of annoying, to be honest. I chucked the orb I was holding at the thing.

When it hit it, a blinding flash of white light filed the room for a brief instance, forcing me to shield my eyes. When I opened then once more, the orb looked different. Instead of its designs it had recently, it now looked sort of like that orb I threw at it, encased in a bubble. It wasn't flitting about anymore, so I just let it be and walked back to the Cruxtruder. It could follow me if it wanted, I just didn't want it to be flying around like crazy again.

Inspecting the machine, I noticed that something else was sticking out of the top. Carefully, I removed it. It was not very heavy, so I lifted it up and held it for inspection. It was curious, to be honest. A cylinder made out of some unknown material. It was a sort of bluish emerald color, which to my surprise was quite pleasing on the eye.

I looked once more on the timer before I left to go upstairs. 3:57, 3:56. Looks like I used more time than I wanted. I needed to hurry up.

When I went back upstairs, I put the card back into the Totem Lathe. It looked as if the cylinder thing would fit perfectly into the crevice, so I placed that in there too. With a simply punch of a button, the cylinder started spinning, and a laser beamed from the top of the Totem Lathe onto the whirling object. Both of them stopped, leaving a carved cylinder thing behind. Well, it no longer looked like a cylinder, but I just decided to call it that anyway.

Just then, my phone rang.

I picked it up and answered immediately. According to the Caller ID, it was Jeremy.

"What happened?" I asked.

"A meteor just landed next to my house!" I heard a voice on the other line. Jeremy sounded frightened, perhaps even panicked. "I don't know, there was an explosion and the power went out briefly. It just came back on, and I'm rebooting my computer."

He sounded really worried.

"Did you see where it hit?" I asked. I was really glad he was ok. We really needed to get into the medium. Maybe this waiting to call everyone was a bad idea. I should have informed them of the change in plans right away.

"Yeah, but the smoke wasn't cleared away yet. It might now though."

"Alright. I'm glad you're ok!" I said, trying to cheer him at least slightly.

"Same. We really need to all get into this session soon."

"Agreed."

I walked over to the class door and opened it. I think I knew where to place this thing. However, after that I seriously had no idea what to do.

When I walked outside, I was met with a sight that almost made me drop the cylinder object. There were more and more meteors dropping, and I could swear it looked like one of them was coming directly toward me.

I admit it, I almost panicked.

Immediately, I placed the cylinder in the tower thing on the Alchemiter. I quickly searched the machine for any way to activate it. It would have made it so much easier if one of those guides weren't a piece of complete and utter crap!

I heard a whirring and quickly looked up. To my surprise, the Alchemiter had automatically scanned the cylinder! There, on the circular platform was a huge machine. I only got a glimpse before It disappeared, dropping a gear made of that same weird emerald blue material into my hands.

I was really bright, and a feeling of dread enveloped me. What did I do now? I looked up into the sky, and was suddenly hit by shock. The gear fell from my hands as time seemed to slow down.

The meteor was getting much, much bigger. It was growing closer.

I don't know how, but it wasn't until then that it occurred to me. I was going to die. I couldn't do anything to escape. It was already closing the distance between me and it. It flew closer, and I wondered what the afterlife was like. I honestly did. It was only a moment until I would be smashed by this thing.

The gear smashed to the ground into a hundred pieces just as everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

==== Getting Ready

The first thing I noticed was how cold I was. Seriously, I was freezing. A moment later, I felt something prod my side, as if it was trying to wake me up. I heard a voice. Was that Jeremy?

"Oh God, Jacob, don't be dead. Wake up, wake up!"

I groggily moved my hands to try to lift myself, and barely managed. Holy crap, I was really cold.

"Oh, good." He sounded vastly relieved. "Hurry up! Get inside, you're turning purple for crying out loud!"

I managed to comply and dragged myself inside, closing the glass door behind me. I started to remember what happened. Was I in the Medium?

I looked over at the computer. Oh yeah, Jeremy must have connected back to it and was chatting with me again. I wondered how long I was out.

A glowing org floated over to me. It looked like the orb I had thrown into the weird other orb thing earlier, except it was actually glowing pretty brightly.

"When that gear thing shattered, my screen suddenly went black, and the bubble in the orb split in two! One going up, the other down. That thing was left behind."

The orb loomed closer to me, and I could actually feel warmth radiating off of it. I instantly snuggled up close to it. It felt wonderful.

Soon, I was laying on the couch in a blanket, curled up against my glowy heat orb thing. I was so glad I had it to help me. In fact, I was just about all warmed up when Jeremy began talking through the speakers once more.

"Uhh, Jacob? Sorry to interrupt your warming up, but I think there is something you need to check out. Like, now."

I felt much better, to be honest. That orb really knew how to do the trick!

I got off the couch, still wrapped in my brown blanket, and went over to the computer.

"What is it?" I asked.

I heard Jeremy shift before he answered. "I think you need a weapon. There are some weird impish looking glowing monsters around your house, walking around. I think they're trying to find a way in."

"Oh, crap." I said. That's right. With a game, comes enemies. I guessed this was just something I was going to have to deal with, then.

I decided that my best bet would probably be to get a few sharp knives to use that had paper sheathes. Yeah, they were kitchen knives, but they were my best bet. Also, I decided to pick up my throwing star I had in my room for good measure.

I might as well bundle up for the horridly cold weather out there, so I went to my room and got my Jacket with the fake fur inside, wrapped my purple plaid scarf around my neck, and put on my cap. I zipped up my coat and went back to the kitchen/dining room/living room, and put the knives and throwing star on my person. I was ready to go.

"Hey, are you going out to fight those things?" Jeremy asked.

"In a second maybe. I just wanted to get ready."

"Alright. There are a ton of them out there, you should be careful."

"I'm going to call people first. I think the most important thing right now is to get you in here before a meteor kills you. I'm going to use the phone."

"Alright." He said.

I walked over to the phone and picked it up, immediately dialing Acadia's number. The phone rang for a little while, but thankfully, after a few attempts, she finally picked it up.

"Hello?" Acadia's voice groggily answered the phone.

"Acadia. You need to enter. Now."

"What time is it?" She asked. Dang it, there wasn't time for this!

"I think the sun is just rising over there. There was a change of plans. You need to connect to Austen, get him in the Medium, and then get in yourself."

"The Medium?" She asked. Dang it! That's right, she didn't know much about the game. At least I read some of the crappy Attempt-at-Walkthroughs!

"The game SBURB we were all planning on playing? You really, really need to get up. Look outside. Turn on the News."

After a while, I finally got her up and told her about what was going on.

"So we need to all enter before we get killed!" I said.

"Jacob, is this a story you're writing?" She asked. Dang it!

"No, just come on. I really want to play the game with you all, and me and Jeremy already started. Please?"

Thankfully, she agreed, and we set up a three way call with Austen. I debriefed him on the change of plans as well, except he was much heartier to agree. Thank goodness!

Finally, Acadia had set up the Server and connected to Austen's Client.

"Alright." I said, "Just deploy everything that's free to a good place that isn't blocking anything. Give Austen the pre-punched card, and drop something on top of the Cruxtruder. Ok?"

"Alright." Acadia replied. After about a minute, she responded again. "Done."

"Alright, you've pretty much done everything you need to in order to help him enter." I said to Acadia, "Austen?"

"What is this weird glowy thing?" He asked, confused.

"Oh, just throw something into it, but don't do one of your favorite books. From what I can gather, you're probably going to have to fight enemies kinda like whatever's in there."

He said alright, and I continued my instruction. "Alright, get one of those weird emerald and blue cylinders out of the Cruxtruder, and-"

"You mean one of these yellow things?" Austen asked. Huh, that's weird. Why would it be yellow?

"Yeah. Just put it into the Totem Lathe and put the pre-punched card into it as well, and when it carves it put the object into a slot thing on the Alchemizer. Alright? Smash whatever it makes appear."

"That sounds really simple." Acadia said, but before she could say anything more, I quickly interjected.

"Yeah, just remember to prototype something, alright? Mine has already helped me." I looked up from the phone to see my orb floating in front of a window. "Speaking of which, I really have to go. Good luck guys!"

"Thanks!" Austen responded. I'm so glad that they decided to listen to me. I really didn't have time for antagonism. I had some fighting to do, and people to help enter. To be perfectly honest, I felt a sense of urgency. I couldn't let everyone die. After all, we had been planning this for months! Also, they were my friends, and I wasn't going to let my friends die over something stupid like getting blown up by meteors.

"Jeremy?" I asked. He didn't respond. Shrugging, I went to the door, and was about to unlock it, when his voice came back through the speakers.

"Jacob! You would not believe this!"

Being my server player, I definitely didn't want to ignore him. "What is it?" I asked, intrigued.

"You remember that meteor that hit near my house?"

"Yeah, what about-"

"There's some weird frog ruins there now!"

"What the Heck?" I said. That seriously didn't make any sense. Then again… "Have you checked it out yet?" I asked. Then I thought it was probably a stupid question. "Never mind, we need to get you in here!"

No response.

"Jeremy?"

Still no response. I walked to the computer and took a look. Oh, it said the call had ended and he wasn't online anymore. Did he lose connection? I seriously hoped he was alright.

Regardless, I looked toward the door. There were some imps that needed a-killin. And they weren't going to do it on their own. As I walked out the door, I wondered what the reason for doing this was. To be honest, I wasn't sure. All I knew is that it made sense to do.

Besides, I needed to get a feel for the game so I could help the others. I knew I would have to be crafty, and this was dangerous, but I would escape before things got out of hand.

With a huff, I walked out into the cold air, bundled up this time, and closed the door behind me. All I was going to do was kill a few imps, see what happened, and get the heck back inside and help the others. But until then, it was time to get this adventure started.


	3. Chapter 3

==== Deploy

I surveyed the land around me. To my surprise, there actually wasn't much land at all. At the end of my yard, it seemed to drop off into nothingness. To be honest, I didn't wan to see what was down there. I looked about. It was night, it was cold. I wondered if it was ever day here. It probably was, but still.

Ah, sure enough. Glowy imp looking things. Just what I was looking for! They definitely weren't hard to spot. The stuck out of the darkness with ease. Some were glowing blue, others red. Green, purple, orange, white, and one was even pink. So, pretty much every color that the orb was capable of, except for the flashing colors.

I saw one coming up the stairs, so I quickly ducked and hid. I was going to surprise it. Sure enough, it got to the top of the stairs and I jumped out, surprising it. Quickly, I shoved one of the knives into it and sliced it with another, afterwards quickly drawing back. It did not look happy at all and quickly retaliated by running toward me. I jumped out of the way, but its punch grazed my leg. These things were short and weak looking, but I still didn't want to get hit by one.

I suddenly darted to the side and sliced at it, and to my surprise it exploded.

Ok, it didn't actually literally explode, but that was the closest thing I could think of to describe what it did. It fell on the ground, dead, and puffed out from existence. A few small-medium sized blue fruit gusher looking things popped out and landed on the floor where it was previously. Curious, I picked them up.

They were hard, but easy to lift up. I decided to carry them to the Alchemiter and put them on it. Immediately, they disappeared in a flash. Alright, so I guess that was what I'm supposed to do with those things then.

I waited for a few more to climb up the stairs and repeated the procedure. Attack, dodge, attack, and dodge until I killed them. I got hit once, but to be honest it only hurt a little. I put all the weird fruit gusher things on the Alchemiter and they disappeared as well. I decided I was comfortable with how combat worked in this game thing and went back inside, locking the door behind me. As long as those things don't get inside, I'd be fine.

I got back on the computer and looked to see if Jeremy was online yet. He wasn't.

Well, that was worrying. I really hoped he's still alive.

I decided it would be best to call him. After all, I wasn't even sure it was possible to progress without a server player connected to you, so I should at least figure out what's up.

The phone rang for a while, but nobody picked up. Ok, this was really troubling. What in the world happened? I tried again.

Finally, when he didn't pick up, I pulled out my iPod Touch, and texted him. Surprisingly, I had wifi and internet connection, even though I was pretty sure I wasn't even in the same plane of reality with Earth anymore.

_This is Jacob. What happened? Text back if ok._

I decided that was that, and put it back into my pants pocket. It was getting kind of warm, so I took off my hat and unzipped my heavy jacket. The scarf was fine.

I wondered if Austen had gotten in the session yet. No matter, I still needed to contact the others. It would probably be best to get Jeremy in the Medium before he was killed, if he wasn't already. Oh man, I really hoped he wasn't.

I took the phone off the receiver once more and dialed Jay's number. It was ringing when I remembered that he said he was going to be in Clair's session. However, before I could hang up, he picked up the phone.

"Hey Jacob." He said. Well, might as well ask him how the session is going.

"Hey, I have a question. Hove you managed to enter the medium yet?" I already knew what he was going to say.

"No, actually. Clair decided to ditch me for some other session with her online friends." Oh, never mind. Was not expecting that at all. Wow, he sounded really dejected. I wondered if he wanted to join our session.

"You can join our session if you want." I said. Man, I hoped he said yes.

"That would be great. I already have the game downloaded and I was about to install it when Clair texted me."

Alright. Looked like this was going to work. Sweet! Besides, I was pretty sure that Clair would screw over whatever session she was in anyway.

Jay spoke up once more. "Hey, wait. Someone's calling in. Could I call you back? It's my grandma."

Oh, great. This wasn't good in the least bit. Her grandma was never good news. Usually, when she called Jay, it was to complain about something, demand something, or something like that. I seriously did not envy Jay for living with her grandma. That lady was bad news, and bad for your mental health. Kara, his cousin who also lived with their grandma was ok though. Not the best, but at least ok.

I pressed the off button on the phone and placed it on the counter. I wondered if Jeremy had texted me back or not. I really hope so. I pulled out my iPod and looked at it.

Crap, not a single notification. This was seriously bad. How was I going to contact him? I couldn't believe that he had been hit. It couldn't have happened! I tried calling once more, but to no avail.

That's when I decided. I couldn't let anyone else die. It just couldn't happen! Quickly, I swiped up the phone and began pacing as I called Jessica.

We had planned for her to be my client player, but I had wanted to get the hang of the game a little before I connected to her. From the looks of it, I didn't think I any longer had time.

The phone rang only twice before she picked it up.

"Hello?" A sleepy Jessica asked.

"Hey Jessica." I responded with a sigh of relief. She was fine so far at least.

"Oh, hey Jacob." I could hear her stretching on the other line.

"Hey, I'm sorry for waking you up, but this is really important."

"That's ok, I love talking to you. What's wrong?"

"I need to connect to you right away. It's really important."

"But you already are connected to me, you're talking to me right now." She responded groggily. Dang it, I needed to wake her up.

"No, seriously. I'm in the game right now. You need to get in here to. Our neighborhood is on fire."

"What?" She asked, woken up quite a bit from that. I heard her shift, likely to the window to see.

"I'm not sure if it's gotten to you yet, but you really need to enter the game as quickly as you can!"

"I don't see a fire." She said.

"Ok, I know, but it was the only way I could think of getting you up. Sorry."

"Jacob, why would you-"

"There still isn't much time. Look into the sky. See all that?" I asked her.

There was a pause, and a gasp. "It's beautiful!" She said.

"No, those meteors are hitting houses! I've been trying to get a hold of Jeremy, but I'm afraid that he might already have been hit!"

"What?" Jessica sounded like she suddenly sat up. "Are you sure? No."

"I don't know, but soon after I entered the medium he completely lost connection and I haven't been able to get hold of him since! A meteor hit next to his house earlier, and this really isn't good. You need to get into the Medium!"

"I'm going downstairs right now!" She said hurriedly.

"Alright, have you bought the game yet?" I asked.

"Uhh…"

Never mind. Just get the game on your mom's account. It's only ten dollars, and the economy doesn't matter anymore considering we're in the middle of a freaking meteor apocalypse!"

"Alright."

I installed the Server, and after a while she had downloaded and installed the client as well. Almost instantly, we established a connection, and the screen opened up her room. Hey, now I could finally see what the server controls looked like!

"Hey, I'm going to start deploying stuff, alright?"

She said it was ok, so I began to deploy. I put the Cruxtruder in her backyard, as well as the Alchemiter in another corner, and the Totem Lathe against her fence.

"Alright, go to your backyard, alright?"

"You can't tell me what to do!" She said, but then went anyway. I smiled, she was usually like that.

When she went through the back doors, she stopped. "Holy crap, what are these?"

"Calm down." I said, "I'll tell you how to use them. You see that machine?" I asked, pointing the cursor at the Cruxtruder, "This is the Cruxtruder." Dang, how many times would I have to explain this to people? Oh well. I picked up her fridge in the kitchen, unplugging it, and brought it over the Cruxtruder. Dropping it, it fell and smashed against the top of it and tumbled over. The top of the Cruxtruder popped off and a Cylinder thing popped out along with another one of those glowy orb bubble things.

"Alright, now throw something into that bubble, alright?"

"Oh, I know just the thing!" She squealed and ran upstairs.

I followed her and watched her grab her Beatles Anthology book and run back down.

"Wait, you're going to have to- Fight things like what you throw in…" But it was too late, she had already thrown it in, and with a flash the bubble was prototyped, with a Beatles Anthology book. Wow, that was just great…

"Oops." She said. "Sorry."

I sighed. "It's alright. Pick up that cylinder." She did. Interesting. This one was a light red color, almost pink. "Alright, walk over to this machine." I pointed my cursor at the Totem Lathe, "And put the thing in there.

"Alright." She slid it in. alright, this was going to be very simple!

I leisurely looked at the timer on the Cruxtruder.

0:40, 0:39

Oh, Shit!

"Ok, quickly slip this in that slot!" I said, giving her the pre-punched card.

"Which slot?" She asked, trying to put it into the same place the cylinder was.

0:30, 0:29

Gah! Crap, hurry the freak up, Jessica!

"This one!" I said, pointing to the slot with my cursor. She slipped in the card and the stupid Totem Lathe decided to take its merry time. Come on!

Finally, it was done. "Hurry up and take that!" I Demanded.

"You can't tell me what to do! You're not the boss of me!"

0:15, 0:14

Would you just shut the fuck up? You're about to die!

"Jessica, please hurry up! Take it and run to this thing!" I pointed to the Alchemiter.

She quickly obeyed and ran over to it. I guessed she finally heard the urgency of my voice.

"Put it in that slot!" I hollered, pointing to the slot you put it in. Thankfully, she complied, and it scanned it.

Suddenly, a tower appeared on the Alchemiter, and it dropped a music not made of the same material as her cylinder. The tower disappeared. And she turned around.

0:06, 0:05

"HOLY SHIT THAT METEOR IS GOING TO HIT ME! FUCK-"

"JESSICA BREAK THE DAMN MUSIC NOTE!"

0:01, -_ SMASH!_

And with that, the whole screen turned black.


	4. Chapter 4

==== Prototype

In the blackness, a simple book in a bubble shone brightly, and the bubble split it two. One went up into the sky, and the other descended downward past the drop-off on the other side of the fence. In its place was left a person that looked kinda ghostly. Strange, he looked vaguely familiar.

The screen faded back into color to show Jessica slumped over her Alchemiter. Thank goodness she was safe. I prodded her with the cursor for a little while until she awoke. She mumbled something, but I think she dropped her phone when she saw the meteor. I couldn't hear what she was saying.

That's when the ghostly looking person floated over to her. She slowly looked up, and with a start, squealed so loud the phone on the ground picked it up.

"GEORGE!?"

I do admit, I have no clue what she said after that, but I'm pretty sure it involved fangirling. After all, she did suddenly run up and hug him with more excitement and delight than I ever thought possible for her. I wouldn't be surprised if she was foaming at the mouth.

Since she was thus distracted, I decided to check out the rest of the server features.

The interface was pretty cool. There were seven different selection options it seemed in the top tab. select, revise and deploy looked like different positions of the cursor you had seen floating around. No clue what a Phernalia Registry was, Grist Cache looked like one of those weird hard blue fruit gusher looking things, no clue what Explore Atheneum meant, and I only knew one of the words in Alchemy Excursus meant, but it looked like that pre-punched card. Alright, so I guess I really did need to fiddle around.

On the left corner, there were scroll and zoom buttons. There were also a save and load button? Also an x button. I tried pressing the save button, but it just apparently saved the location the camera was at. Alright, that will be useful if I need to get back to the backyard fast.

I looked at the deploy menu again. There was something that I hadn't seen before, but it apparently cost four purple fruit gusher things. However, judging from the name "Grist Cache", I put together that they were called grist. That will make things easier in the future!

I didn't know what else to do, so I just left Jessica to fan girl. It looked like this George fellow was trying to calm her down and tell her something.

I didn't really know what else to do, so I got off the computer. I looked around the room, and sighed, sitting down on the couch. This was the worst thing ever. I was seriously worried about Jeremy, and Jay never called me back. I decided I should look at my iPod one more time, the flimsy hope that maybe Jeremy had texted back.

Nope.

I slumped in the couch in dejection. What was I going to do? My server player and good friend was dead, and there wasn't anything I could no. No, no, no. I couldn't say that. He couldn't be dead, but somehow it felt like I was right.

This was seriously horrible.

Suddenly, the phone rang. Meager hope flared up in me as I jumped to answer it.

"Hello?" I said eagerly.

"Hey." Said Acadia.

I do admit that I was hoping it would be Jeremy, but I guess that was to no avail. At least Acadia was safe. She really needed to get into the Medium.

"Is Austen in?" I asked. Was he alright?

"Yeah, he prototyped a rubber ducky." Acadia said, trying to keep from laughing. The side of my mouth twitch upward, but with the weight of the situation was making me not feel like finishing the smile.

"We need to get you into the Medium." I said. I was serious; our situation was bad enough as it was. We couldn't let anything happen to anyone else.

"Yeah, I know. Who is going to connect to me?" She asked.

I thought for a moment, and remembered the order we had come up with.

"Zach Halso." I said. "We need to get him to enter though, and likely will need Hope to guide him through it."

Acadia seemed to understand what I was talking about. "Yeah. Just get ahold of me when he's ready, alright? I'll be helping Austen get to this first gate thing. He looks like he's having some trouble with these monsters."

"Alright, Good luck!"

Soon after, we hung up and I looked back at the screen. Was Jessica… Crying? Oh, George was trying to soothe her. It looked as if he wasn't sure what to do. Alright, I'm just going to try calling her again. I hoped the phone had hung up somehow.

I picked up the phone and dialed in Jessica's number. It started ringing. I looked at the screen and saw George float over to the phone and pick it up, bringing it back to Jessica. Finally, she picked up the phone.

"Hello?" She sniffled.

"Jessica, this is me, Jacob. It's really important that we-"

"IT'S GEORGE!" She squealed.

"Jessica, we need to get-"

"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT THIS IS THE BEST AND WORST DAY OF MY LIFE!"

"JESSICA!" I yelled through the phone. "We need to get Hope in here!"

She paused for a moment. I looked at the screen and finally she seemed to have stopped crying due to excitement overload. I continued.

"I don't want her to die, alright? I seriously doubt you do too. You need to connect to her!"

Jessica paused and got to her feet. "You're right." She said.

After she stopped flipping out about the fact that one of the Beatles was her guide thing, she got straight to the computer. We set up a three way call with Hope, and got ready to begin her entering.

"Alright." I said, "Is everyone ready?"

"Yup!" Hope said. Jessica agreed.

"Alright, I'm going to go and get hold of Jay. Just call me again when you've entered, alright? And remember, you have to enter before the timer on the Cruxtruder reaches zero. And I'm talking life and death importance here."

"Oh, so that's why you were yelling at me." Jessica said.

"Yeah." I said.

We talked for a moment after and I hung up to get hold of Jay once more.

Thankfully he picked up. I wasn't expecting what he said though.

"Hey, Jay." I said.

"Jacob," He responded, "A meteor hit my neighbor's house."

"What?" I exclaimed, "What in the world happened?"

"I don't know, but there are some weird frog ruins there now." He finished.

I remembered what Jeremy had said. Frog ruins? This was weird. Still, we had to get him in before it was his own house hit.

"Jay, we need to get you in. Have you contacted Austen yet? He's going to be your server player."

"That derp? Why is he going to be my Server?"

"Jay, come on. He's already entered the Medium. He'll know what to do. Besides, Acadia will help him. "

"Oh, that's so reassuring." He sarcastically stated. "Ah well, yeah, I'll get a hold of him."

"That's great! You know his number, right?"

"Of course." He said. "Well, I'm going to call him. I'll talk to you later."

"Alright, good luck!"

I put the phone back on the receiver, and looked back on the computer. Jessica seemed engrossed in being the server player. I shrugged and got on Tumblr.

Not to very much of a surprise, there were a ton of people on Tumblr freaking out and talking about the Medium. I scrolled down my dash for a while, and decided to look at the SBURB tag.

What I found was a surprise.

There were a bunch of people sobbing about dead players, doomed sessions, and not being able to find players. There were people posting videos of their lands, tips on how they were fighting, and a lot more people talking about Alchemizing. Some even had pictures of their sprites. Well, at least that's what they were calling them. I guess this meant that Jessica's sprite was called Georgesprite, and mine was ballsprite.

That's when I noticed something interesting. There was someone talking about how to prototype. What they were saying gave me an idea.

_Ok, so judging on what me and my friends have prototyped, I think I have figured this out. You can prototype your sprite up to two times with pretty much anything you want. However, when you prototype it is very important to how your session goes._

_From the looks of it, the monsters you fight will take on characteristics of anything you prototype before you enter. The prototypes after entry don't seem to have any effect on them, though. This makes for an important discovery: Prototype something weak and simple before you enter and something epic that can really help you, after you enter. However, it is really important that you prototype something before you enter, and this is the reason why._

_I was in contact with one of my friends who had entered a session with their friends, but they had made a horrible mistake. As it turns out, if nobody prototypes anything before entering, all the enemies, who previously would have taken on the characteristics of what was prototyped before entry, became nearly invincible bone monsters. DO NOT MAKE THIS MISTAKE!_

_Alright, Now for prototyping. The second prototype seems to mix with the first prototype, creating some sort of fusion between the two. However, if at least one of the prototypes are either a living, animate object, or previously were, they can actually communicate with you. This creates a guide that will be able to help you on your journey. Believe me, I wish I had known this when I did my second prototype. It was my favorite necklace, so now I'm stuck with a floating computer wearing a necklace._

_I do have to admit, it's not that bad. This computer really comes in handy! I don't advise it though, it is a real problem when all the imps try to hack everything with the computer skills they all have. Ok, it is really annoying. _

_I hoped this prototyping guide helped you. Sorry I don't know everything, but at least you won't have to learn all of this the hard way. So long and good luck! Sylph of Hope, signing out!_

That really was handy. I pressed the follow button. I hoped they would have more useful tidbits of information as their session went on.

It also gave me an idea. Two prototyping, eh? I guess this meant I should prototype something living, or used to be living. But what?

I got off the computer and paced around, thinking. That's when I went to the glass door and slipped the blinds open.

Augh, stupid imps! There were three, trying to mess with the Alchemiter! Alright, I couldn't let them break it. That would not be good at all!

Quickly slipping on my winter outfit, I got my daggers ready and went back to the door. Alright, how was I going to do this? I didn't want to get myself in danger, so I needed a plan.

Once I thought for a minute, I was ready. I quickly slipped open the door and jumped out, slicing the first imp in the neck. The imps were still kind of in a state of surprise, so I quickly sliced the second one apart and finished the first one. However, the third one was back in action, and I had to deal with it retaliating. At least this gave me more of a chance of not getting harmed.

The imp made a dash and pecked my leg with its duck beak. Wait a second, did Austen prototype something about a duck, or did someone else make it into the session finally? I didn't have time to dwell on it though. I sliced my knife downward through the air, but the imp sidestepped before I could hit it. I jumped back to dodge it's pack once more, and jumped over it, hurdling the knife through the air toward it, imbedding itself into the imp's head.

The imp puffed out of existence, and I was left with the grist the three left behind. I immediately put it on the Alchemiter and it absorbed it.

I walked to the edge of my deck and looked over the lawn, thinking once more of how to prototype my sprite. None of my family was home, so I don't have any living people. I don't have any pets, so that was out of the question.

Well, except for Sammy, but he was buried…

Wait a second; if I were to dig him up, I could talk to him again! Ok, that was a pretty gross idea, but that was really the only living or used to be living thing in or around my house.

I ran to my garage and got the shovel, and ran outside to the place where he was buried, and began the task of digging him up.

Imps would interrupt me, but I would dispatch them. However, when I was about a quarter done, I got tired of the constant interruption, so whenever an imp can close I would just smash it with the shovel. Thankfully, after a little while, I had a bunch of grist around me and the imps started to leave me alone.

Finally, I completed the task, and there it was. In the earth laid a simple metal box. I got it out of the ground and carried it back up to my deck where my ballsprite was waiting. Without warning, I opened the box lid without looking and threw the contents into the sprite. There was a flash of light and the smell disappeared. Slowly I looked up.

There he was. My late cat, Sammy, in his fullness! As I stood there staring, he came up and rubbed my leg.

"Sammy?" I asked.

"Meow!" He answered. Oh.

I felt kind of dejected and happy at the same time. I finally was with my dear cat, Sammy again. He couldn't talk, though.

"So, I guess you can't talk?" I asked.

"Meow…"

"Oh."

"I can talk." Sammysprite said.

I looked up quickly. Sammy! I felt such a warm sense of comfort enter me. Sammy could talk! I had Sammy again!

"Ohh, I missed you!" I said, as I ran up to and hugged him, holding him in my arms. I couldn't believe it! Sammy!

It was still cold outside though, and I had been out for a while, so we both went back inside.

I closed the door behind me, and looked at my sprite, and newly revived beloved pet. That's when I realized. With Sammy at my side helping me, and my friends all working with me to get to the end of this game and beat it, we really had no reason to fret. We could do this. I don't know if it was just hope that seeing Sammy once more inspired within me, or real inspiration, but for the first time since I entered, I felt like this was going to work out.

It was wonderful.


	5. Chapter 5

==== Sprite Advice

"So, you got Hope into the Medium?" I asked Jessica over the phone. I was looking at my computer and I saw her messing with her Alchemiter.

"Yeah, she's actually trying to get Zach to play right now." She responded.

"Oh, I hope that goes well."

"I hope she succeeds in motivating that boy."

"Yeah, I hope she's just able to get him into the session."

To be honest, we weren't trying to make puns of her name. It was funny, but it just always happened.

"Hopefully he will listen to her." Jessica said.

"Yeah. So anyway, what have you been up to?" I asked.

"Messing with the Alchemiter. Did you know that you can duplicate and mix things with it?"

"Huh, I was reading on Tumblr something about it."

"Oh! So you don't know, then?"

"Yeah, not really."

Jessica began to tell me about the Alchemiter. To be honest, I really hadn't stopped to see how it worked, but it looked like Jessica had the time. So, it seemed that the three machines weren't just used for entering the Medium. They were important tools used to create better gear in the game, and devises to help you out. It also made it seem that grist was not only used to build, but to alchemize as well. Apparently her guide had been showing her what to do to use it, but she couldn't actually alchemize anything yet. She needed me to deploy something called a punch designex and a fetch modus.

I quickly deployed the Punch Designex in her backyard. I also found the fetch modus thing she was talking about, and deployed that in front of her as well.

However, Sammysprite kept on bothering me and I couldn't pay much attention. Rubbing against my leg, meowing, eventually I gave in.

"Hey Jessica, I'll get back to you later, Sammysprite wants to tell me something."

"Alright! See you soon!"

I hang up and put the phone away.

"What is it?" I asked Sammy. He obviously wasn't going to let this up.

"There is something important you need to know, Jacob." He mewled. "I don't know, but ever since you brought me back to help you something's been nagging at my mind."

"What is it?" I asked. I knew that if Sammy wanted to tell me something important, I should listen.

"Well, do you know where this place is?" He asked.

"I saw a lot of people posting on Tumblr about it. Something called a Medium, but that's pretty much it."

"You are right about the name at least. This place is indeed called the Medium. It doesn't exist in our universe though."

"It doesn't?" I asked, "Where are we then?"

"A realm that is a ring of pure void, dividing light and darkness. It turns in the thick of The Incipisphere, a place untouched by the flow of time in your universe."

"So we aren't really in a game, then?" That was odd. How could a game transport us somewhere else? I do admit, though, it was just as abstract of an idea as a game where you could create things, and manipulate reality.

"No, not inside a game. The software that brought you here was merely a mechanism that served as a gateway into the Medium. Here stands independently of any machine, even though in a sense it was a machine that invoked its existence, yet it stands independently of any physical machine, and somewhat paradoxically, always has!

"Above The Medium, beyond The Seven Gates, residing at the core of The Incipisphere is a place known as Skaia. Legend holds that Skaia exists as a dormant crucible of unlimited creative potential. However, I'm not allowed to tell you what that means.

"Anyway, where a realm of such profound importance is concerned, forces of light will forever be charged with its defense, while forces of darkness will just as persistently covet its destruction. And as it so happens, at the center of this realm whose fate is in question, these very forces duel on a stage, stuck in eternal stalemate. Yes, they have dueled in this manner forever... that is, until you showed up!"

"Wait a second. Me?" I asked, perplexed.

"Yes, you, Jacob! Don't you remember what the sprite was like before you entered? Before you brought me back to life? The Sprite's previous incarnation, which resulted from its Kernel's 'hatching'?

"You see, this hatching occurs automatically in response to your arrival! The result is a pair of Kernels, one dark, one light, each carrying the information they were prototyped with before the hatch! One goes down, to a kingdom entrenched in darkness. The other, up, to a kingdom basking in light! Each comes to rest in an Orb atop a Spire, of which there are seven others in kind. The Eight Spires are situated above a throne, and these two thrones preside over the two respective Sovereign Powers! And once the Kernels are situated, that is when the game is afoot. The true war begins, light versus dark, good versus evil. This is a war that the forces of light are always destined to lose, without exception!"

"But if the battle is already decided, than what in the world do I do?"

"That remains for you to find out. For you see, the journey you are about to take is The Ultimate Riddle!

"For now, your objective is to proceed towards Skaia, and pass through The First Gate situated directly above your house, not even terribly far! The Gates will become progressively more difficult to reach, so you had better be prepared to sharpen your adventuring skills!"

"Alright, I'm definitely ready for that, but how do I get up there?"

"You build!" Sammysprite said, excited.

"Oh." I responded, dejected. I sat back down in the computer chair, thinking about my former server player, Jeremy.

"What's wrong?" Sammysprite asked, coming to sit on my lap.

"Well, I don't have a server player anymore. I lost connection with him earlier today and haven't been able to get a hold of him ever since."

"Oh, that is unfortunate." Sammysprite said. "But it is not hopeless!"

I looked up, hope twinkling inside me. "Is he still alive?" I asked.

"Unfortunately I don't know the answer to that, Jacob. The knowledge I gained from you prototyping me only extends as far as this Incipisphere. However, you are not confined to only one server player!

"It's completely possible for one of the other players to connect to you and help you build up to the gates!"

"Alright! So This really could work then! That's good, I was starting to get worried. to be honest, it started to just feel hopeless. I just wanted to save my friends."

"Well, that is entirely possible! If they enter, they will indeed be saved from Earth's destruction."

"Wait, destruction?" I asked, "Metaphorical, or literal? The earth's not actually going to be destroyed, is it?"

" There isn't anything anyone can do about it, Jacob. The planet is done for. But I promise you that your mission is much more important than saving Earth. Otherwise this game wouldn't even exist!"

"But what is my mission, then?" I asked, perplexed. What would be more important than saving our planet from destruction?

"I really want to tell you, but I can't. The game isn't letting me. Maybe it wants you to find out for yourself?

"I guess so." I said. This was really making my curiosity burn. Though, its purpose was likely working. I really wanted to strive forward and find out what I was supposed to do. However, in order to do that I needed to get in contact with someone to be my server player.

I looked at the screen with Jessica. She was running around and looked like she was having fun Alchemizing. She was Hope's server player anyway. I didn't want to burden her with being mine as well. I wondered if Jay was in yet. She was going to connect to Jeremy, but maybe she could connect to me, now that…

I called Jay up.

"Have you entered your land yet?" I asked.

"Barely. Austen got distracted and the meteor almost hit me before I got in."

"That happened to me, too. I think it's just something that happens. The game gives you only just enough time to enter, and no more."

"I guess so. Ever since then, I've been fighting and Austen's been building. I've also Alchemized a really great bow and I've been using that. This game really is interesting. What did you allocate to your Strife Sylladex?"

"Huh? What's that?" I asked, confused.

"Oh, dang! Your server player hasn't even given you that? Where is he?"

"A little after I got in, we lost contact. I don't think he entered in time." I said, dejected. "That's why I wanted to ask you something."

"What is it?" Jay asked. I'm glad he didn't ask for details, because I myself really didn't know.

"To be honest, I was wondering if you could act as my server player." I said, "Apparently more than one person can connect, and I really need someone to build up my house, and I guess deploy some crucial items."

"Well, I was planning on connecting to Emily once I set up my server port. You know Emily, right?"

"Yeah. I'll ask her. Do you have her number?"

"Yeah, one second."

Jay gave me Emily's number, and we hung up. I didn't mind Emily, to be honest. She was very excitable and fun to talk to. Likely the most fun loving extraverted person I knew. Well, I didn't really know very many people, so that wasn't saying much. However, I did think she was awesome. I didn't mind having her as my server player.

I called up Emily.

"Hey Jacob! I didn't know you had my number!"

"Yeah," I responded, "Jay gave it to me. I guess in a way I'm the leader of our session? All I know is I'm the first who entered."

"Oh, okay! Who is your server player?" She asked.

"Well, that's what I was calling you about. I heard you wanted to be in our session, right?"

"Yeah, Jay invited me. This is going to be awesome!"

"Definitely! But I'm having complications with my server player, and I was wondering if you could connect to me and help me out while Jay gets the server ready."

"I would love to!" She exclaimed, "It would be awesome to see what the Medium's like before I enter myself!"

I waited for her to install the Server, and she connected to me. She was waiting for Jay to be ready to install the Client disk.

Finally, she connected, and her mouse pointer appeared next to me.

"You look like you're cold." She said, likely referring to my winter attire.

I decided I was a bit warm, so I responded by taking my jacket, hat and scarf off. "Yeah, I don't know why but my medium is really cold. Nobody else seems to have this problem though, at least that I know of."

"Oh, alright. So what do you want me to do?" She asked.

"Well, I really need a Punch Designex and A Strife and Fetch Sylladex. You can deploy those, right?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah! It looks like you have enough grist. Here, I'll deploy this next to your Totem Lathe!"

I looked over and saw her do so. That was definitely a handy place for it.

"Here, I'll put these in front of you." She said. I saw the cursor deposit two cards in front of me.

I picked them up and looked at them. "Thanks." I said, "Do you know what to do?"

"Not really." She admitted.

"Alright. You can scroll up, right? Scroll up until you see the first portal above my house."

"Oh, I see it. That looks so cool!"

"Yeah, as I gather grist, you need to build my house up taller so I can get to it."

"Sounds like fun!" She said, "But you don't really have much grist to use, it looks like. It seems you can store a bit though. Hey, what's this level thing mean?"

"Level thing? What are you laking about?" I asked.

"It says you are rank of Scribble Drawer on your Echeladder."

"What?" I exclaimed. Seriously, what was she looking at?

"Oh, and what's all this grist doing in your yard?" She inquired.

"I didn't have time to collect it." I said. "You could scroll over it and collect it yourself if you want."

"Alright." She said, "But it looks like your sprite collected most of it already. Oh, is that a cat? She's so cute!"

"Yeah, after I entered I prototyped my cat, Sammy. He's a boy by the way. So Sprites can collect it too then?"

"Looks like it. I scrolled over some of it and it disappeared and added to the cache, but the sprite looks like he knows what he's doing much better."

"Alright. I guess you should start building? I'm going to figure out how to use this alchemizing stuff."

"Okay!" Emily exclaimed. She sure sounded excited. I don't blame her. I was a little excited myself to find out what was up there. I guessed it was time to get ready.


	6. Chapter 6

==== Alchemize

I walked over to the Punch Designex to examine it. It looked sort of like a keyboard, but instead of note keys it had an actually computer keyboard. It also had a slot for cards. I took a look at the cards I had received. The Capchalogue card seemed to fit, but not the Strife Card. I shrugged and placed in the Capchalogue card. I hit a few keys on the keyboard, and heard a sound from inside the machine. Curious, I took out the card to find that there were holes punched in it! Remembering the prepunched card, I knew what to do.

I went downstairs and grabbed a cylinder thing. However, judging from the terms the Tumblr people used, it was probably a Cruxtrite Dowel. I picked it up and went back upstairs, putting it into the Totem Lathe. After I carved the thing, I brought the totem outside and put it onto the Alchemiter. It was freezing, but I could handle it for a moment.

A screen alit at the base. It told me that it wasn't very expensive to make whatever it was, grist wise, so I pressed enter. After a flash, an odd looking box appeared on the machine with a skateboard sticking half out of it, and cake smeared over the entire thing.

Alright, that was totally useless.

I decided to call up Emily.

"Hey, could you give me a few more of those cards?" I asked her.

"Sure thing!" was her response. She deposited three of those cards at my feet and I put the phone away. Picking up the three cards, I decided to put them into my pocket. However, as I was doing so, I saw something written on the back. Taking one to examine it, I saw that it just had zeros there.

"Huh, interesting." I said to nobody in particular.

As I was looking at it, Sammysprite approached me.

"Do you want to know what those are used for?" He asked.

I turned to him. Well, it wouldn't hurt to inquire. "Sure!"

"Alright, what you are holding in your hand are cards from a Fetch modus. They are a very important aspect of Alchemizing, because they are the basic thing used to see what the codes for items are! They can also be used for storage. Simply touch the card to something and if you can store it, it will be stored in the card! Very useful for an inventory, right?"

"Definitely." I said, looking at them. That was amazing. They could store things? That could make things a heck of a lot easier.

"Not only that! If you see, when something is stored inside, a code appears on the back. Just simply put that code into the Punch Designex, and you can alchemize copies of that item! The great thing is, you can even mix items together by placing them together into the machine!"

"That's interesting; I'll definitely try it out!"

And so I did.

After carving a dowel for creating new cards, I got to work to alchemize the most useful stuff I could think of.

Once I was done, I had acquired a nice pile of loot. I knew I had been using daggers, but to be honest, magic was definitely where it was at! Sadly, though, I knew that magic didn't exist, this of course made me think of ways to be creative with the use of magic-like utensils in order to emulate it as closely as possible.

I mixed a fake plastic Harry Potter wand with a stick to make a wooden wand. I then mixed the wooden wand with a steel rod to make a metal wand. After that, I mixed a mirror with a battery in order to make a light storage devise. I then mixed that with a light bulb to make a self powered light bulb. Once that was in order, I mixed that with the metal wand to create a glowing wand. However, That wasn't what I wanted, so I found a laser pointer and mixed that with the glowing wand. Ah, much better: a light throwing wand! Now there was one last thing to do. I looked all around the house, and found a wizard statue! Running back, I mixed the light throwing wand and the statue in order to create a Harmless Wand of Light!

I tested it out. It seemed to be a wand that made light radiate out of it when used. I could control where the beam of light traveled with flicks of the wand between activating it and throwing the light. After a bit of practice with it, I began to get the hang of it, but it didn't damage a thing. Although it would be useful to light dark places, I wanted to use it as a weapon. Once again, I went to work.

I took apart the laser pointer and used a screwdriver to increase the output and intensity of the laser it put out. To my surprise, this indeed changed the code for the item. I used the new laser pointer with the light throwing wand and created a legit Wand of Light! I decided to try it out.

Going outside, I engaged myself in battle with one of the odder looking imps. This one had a bowl cut and was glowing blue. I immediately let my wand loose, hitting it with a winding beam of light. It made the part of him hit red, and just made him angrier. I managed to defeat him, but this wand was definitely not the best choice. Annoyed, I went back and tried some more Alchemizing.

Finally, after a bunch of failed attempts and battles, I put together the proper weapon: A Wand of Energy! It hurdled energy through the air, hitting my opponents with the force of energy. It quickly heated up the air it sped through, causing it to emit light, eventually hitting its target, causing damage through electricity and sudden intense heat. Yeah, I admit I had to fight a ridiculous amount of monsters to finally get that weapon, but it was totally worth it!

My phone rang once more. It was Emily.

"Alright! I've built up to the first house!" she exclaimed, "Jay is getting the server ready finally, so I'll be able to enter really soon!"

"Wait, you finished already?" I asked. I was surprised, it didn't seem that long.

"You've been at your weapon making for a few hours now, haha."

"Whoa, really? I guess I lost track of time."

"Yeah! Anyway, I'll get back to you later. Jay is almost ready to connect, and you can enter the portal whenever!"

I got off the phone and looked at the number of failed attempt object lying on the ground. Well, I might as well get to alchemizing some gear to get ready for whatever was on the other side of that portal!

I mixed my jacket with the warmth blanket I had made earlier to make a warm jacket. Apparently the inside of the jacket was assured to always stay warm. Now, that was handy! I then made a warm scarf and a warm hat. I decided to make some warm Jeans and shoes while I was at it. That was when I got an idea.

I found some gloves that I could use, and made some warm gloves. However, I mixed it with my glowing wand in order to make some warm glowing gloves. Then, I mixed it with an on/off switch. There we go: toggle-able glowing gloves! With my new gear on myself, I looked once more at my computer. I still really needed to help out Jessica with her building. I got on the computer and began.

After about halfway to the portal, I was getting a bit too warm for my liking. I decided to make them all toggle-able, just so I could keep them from getting too warm.

About three fourths of the way up, I ran out of building grist. I decided to just wait a little.

It was annoying to have to keep going back to my computer every time I wanted to do something. I had to make some portable devise to use. I decided to mix my sunglasses with glass to make fake glasses. However, I ditched them, remembering how much I disliked wearing glasses. What could I make? I sat down and thought.

That's when an idea struck me. I unplugged my computer and got the code. I plugged it back in and went to go alchemize. Mixing the computer with a hologram devise I made earlier, I made a hologram computer. I think took off my toggleable glowing warm gloves and mixed that with the hologram computer. What resulted was a pair of toggleable warm hologram computer gloves. I decided to try them on and out.

When I turned the computer on, it quickly booted, and a hologram screen appeared in front of me, with a hologram keyboard. I pulled up the Sburb Client application, and sure enough, I could see Jessica's expanded house once more. I went to build it up higher, but although I could still manipulate it, she had made no grist in the time I was gone. I decided to call her up and ask if she was ok, as I scrolled around to find her.

There she was, sleeping gin her room, Georgesprite as her guard, and a cool looking guitar-like thing leaning up against the bed. I decided I would leave her be. I looked up at the clock that was on top of the fridge, and saw it read 8:37pm. It didn't feel like it was that late already, to be honest. I guess it took us a whole day to get this far. Jessica must've been worn out. I did wonder if everyone got in, though. There certainly was enough time!

I called up Acadia to ask her.

"Hey, sorry I didn't get a hold of you earlier, I was really distracted. What's up?"

"Oh, hey Jacob. I finally got into the medium a few hours ago. I'm really glad Hope was helping out Zach. I don't think he had his heart into the game at the time. I'm glad I made it in though. What are you up to?"

"I just got finished alchemizing a bunch of stuff to use. It's freezing here! I'm actually on my holocomputer right now. What weapon are you using?"

"I allocated my trusty blades in here, so I guess according to this Strife Sylladex, Bladekind. Those fencing classes really came in handy! What did you choose?" She asked.

"Oh, I've allocated wandkind. I'm actually using a Wand of Energy. It's really useful! Do you know what everyone else is using?"

"Well, Jessica is using guitarkind. Have you seen her Guitazer? She sent me a picture!"

"Ah, so that's what it was. Nah, she's actually sleeping right now. Georgesprite is protecting her."

"Oh, she was squealing to me about him over the phone. Is it really George?"

"Yeah." I responded. "Do you know if she's done a second prototyping yet?"

"Yeah, she did it with her electric keyboard, so I guess he has an instrument with him at all times, just like her."

"Yeah, sounds like something she would do. What did you prototype?" I asked.

"A Pikachu Plushy before I entered, and once I got in and saw that it turned into an actual Pikachu, I prototyped a portrait of my great grandfather. I always wanted to see him in person, and now I can talk to him! He Knows so much!"

Ah, so that's where the lightning imps and ogres came from. I smiled. Those things were really fun to defeat, and had given me a bunch of grist. It was perfect for what I was trying to Alchemize for my weapon!

"Have you made it through the first portal yet?" I asked.

"Not really." Acadia responded, sounding a little dejected. "Zach hasn't been focusing much on building for me. He seriously refused to be motivated at all, until his guide told him something. He won't tell anyone but hope what was said, though, and so I was left here with nobody acting as my server player."

Ouch, that really wasn't good at all. "Dang, so you need a new Server Player then?"

"No, I'm fine. Austen is trying to get a hold of another copy of the server program to connect to me. He's probably installing it right now."

"Alright. I'm glad to hear that you entered safely, though. We only have one person left to enter, and she's on her way right now."

"It's not Caitlyn, is it?" Acadia asked, sounding a little worried.

"God, no! I don't think anyone in our session would want her here! Besides, she's in another session. Emily Tester is the last one. You know her, right?"

"Only a little. She's the one who hangs out with Clair all the time, right?"

"Yeah, but you don't have to worry. She's in the same boat with us regarding Clair. But enough about that girl, let's think on the bright side!"

"Yeah, we won't have to worry about her again."

"That's the spirit!" I said, smiling. The phone went silent for a moment before she responded.

"Oh, Austen's calling in! Hey, I'll talk to you later. Is that ok?"

"I need to get going anyway. Good luck, Acadia!"

"Thanks, you too!"

With that, we hung up. I pulled up my computer to check and see that Jessica was ok. However, I had a message on Steam. I pulled it up and read it. It was from Emily.

I just wanted to tell you that I'm in the Medium! This place is so cool! I won't be able to help you out for a while, but I doubt you're going to need it. Good luck! You should tell us what you find there!

So we were all in. I breathed a sigh of relief. No longer would I have to worry about close friends dying in a meteor apocalypse. I hoped the rest of my friends were ok, but at this point there was nothing I could do to help them.

I walked outside and looked up. This was going to be troublesome, but I was going to have to do it. I needed to get to the end of this game, but I had a feeling it was going to be a long journey. A journey I was willing to take.

I walked back inside and quickly added my phone to my computer, giving it the phone add-on. It was going to come in handy, considering it was one of my favorite methods of communication.

I hastily climbed up toward the top of the constructs and additions of my house, Making sure to blast away and enemies before they came too close. As I got to the top, I found two huge ogres, bursting with energy of their own.  
I quickly dodged aside one of the bursts of energy, and canceled out the other with a winding beam of my own. I then smashed a beam of energy into the side of one and I jumped onto the other's back. As it thrashed around, I aimed my wand carefully, and sent a plume of light directly into the opposing ogre's eyes, burning them permanently. I swiftly made a jump off of the one and landed on the bumbling blind one. I sent another plume of light, making them both blind. I sent a second one into the other's head, making it stumble.

However, I felt a little jolt begin and swiftly rolled on the ogre's back and onto the ground. Just then, A ray of energy radiated off of the ogre, and smashed into the other one, making it tumble down to the ground. It sent a wave back, hitting the other.

I dispatched of the two bumbling idiots finally, and swiped it all up with my Grist Collector Card that I had made out of one of my Capchalogue cards earlier, and jumped through the first portal, using energy to give me a propelling boost upward.

I entered the portal with a flash. Everything became blue-green and wavy around me, and I felt a falling sensation, as if I was free from gravity. Finally, I knew it was going to be time to see my land.

And as I cleared the portal, I was gone with a flash.


	7. Chapter 7

==== Investigate

My surrounding changed abruptly. One moment I was jumping through the air, the world becoming hazy, when just as suddenly the air about me solidified into a different scene. It took me a moment to realize that my feet were touching the ground. I knew I was definitely somewhere else. The thing was, where?

I looked around. It looked as if the expanse around me was almost completely ice. Spires of it rose from the ground, while others rose up in clumps. It was almost as if the place was made of glaciers upon glaciers.

Behind me resembled a forest, except the trees looked to be completely frozen over and encased in white. Icicles dribbled from their arctic branches, and there were shards on the ground; a collection of broken ice created by ages of freezing. Judging by the look, it seemed that this frigid land experienced rain, but not snow. Rain that fell only to freeze soon after it landed. At least, I might have. I wasn't sure how long this place had stood, frozen in time.

I looked forward and saw spires rising from the white expanse. They looked like huge pillars of a castle, or factory. Now that I thought about it, there were a ton of machine parts and scraps of mettle scattered about. Most of them were buried under ice, but there were a few loose scraps.

The wind was blowing even stronger now, and even with my warm clothing I knew I needed to find shelter. I could feel my face stinging from the air catching the heat away as it blew by.

I hurried as fast as I could toward the pillars in the distance, and as I neared, they seemed to grow. By the time I arrived at the base, they extended far above me.

So there I stood, in front of a huge doorway to this mysterious tower. I could see that it actually extended much farther down, and I was just on a balcony with a door. I didn't mind, I just wanted to get out of the biting wind. Besides, maybe I would be able to find out a little more inside than I could out here.

I looked at the doorway, but I couldn't find any way to open it. Through some further investigation though, I found that there was a pulley hanging next to the door. I tugged on it, but not only was the rope frozen solid, but the mechanism at the top wouldn't budge either.

I pulled out my energy wand. I admit, I wasn't expecting to use it for anything besides battle, but there was a creative use for everything. Pointing it at the pulley mechanism at the top, I fired a small ray of heat toward it, forcing it to thaw.

The ice slowly turned into water and began to drip down. Eventually, all the ice was gone, so I gave the frozen rope another tug. It still didn't budge.

I thawed the rope, and examined the pulley further. It looked like the rope went into a hole in the wall, so I thawed it up to there. After that, the pulley seemed to budge slightly, but it felt like I was trying to move something that was immovable.

That's when I got a thought. If this pulley was rigged to trigger the opening of the door, I should thaw the hinges it would swing on. After all, it would be kind of hard to swing open if it was frozen shut. After a little warming of the hinges, I tried the pulley once more. This time, as I pulled, I heard a click, as if something had been triggered. I backed away, and the doors swung open in front of me, admitting me entrance to the darkness within.

I looked around for a moment, and shot a beam of energy into the entrance, illuminating the room. I didn't see anything hostile, or even animate, inside, so I walked in.

I took stalk of my entire surroundings, just to make sure I was alone. There were levers and pulleys on the wall to my left, and an ice statue that resembled a turtle looking like it was reaching for one of the levers. There were scraps of metal strewn about the ground. Likely fallen from the walls, for they were made mostly of bars. Additionally, some of the levers were broken off. Besides the door I came from, the only exit from the room seemed to be another, smaller door on the opposite side. The freezing air was still rushing in, so I pushed myself against the doors, forcing them closed. I felt a lock tick in place, telling that the door was successfully shut.

I walked to the center of the room once more. The place looked like it had been utterly frozen as well, just as everything else in the land, except it was less ice, through there were some corners full of it, and the ground was slick and walls were shining. Except, now that the light was no longer streaming in through an open doorway, the room had become pitch black. I decided that if I wanted to see anything, I would have to create my own source of light.

I toggled my gloves so they would glow. Ah, that was better. Light radiated from them, casting long shadows on the walls, giving the place a more eerie, mysterious feeling. I walked toward the door on the other end and tried to turn the knob. However, it was completely frozen shut. I should start expecting that, I guess. After all, that is what everything in this land seemed to be. It was beautiful in a way. I loved this land already. It was… comfortable. I just had to watch my back for monsters that the game was going to throw at me. I decided then and there that I was going to find out what this factory was for, and what I needed to do. I knew there was something, and that feeling was telling me that this was the beginning of the adventure that Sammysprite was telling me about. Not I think I understood why the game wanted me to figure out what my quest was. After all, that was what made the whole experience so mysterious and exciting.

I held my wand in front of the door and thawed it. After that, it easily opened at the turn of the knob. I walked through.

Inside was yet another breathtaking spectacle. I was on a balcony in a huge room, likely the main interior of the tower. On the sides of the inside was a spiral staircase, extending around in a circle the circumference of the tower. To my right the stairs led up and my left they lead down. However, in the middle was a long tube of metal, extending from as far down as I could see, up to where my vision could no longer reach. Likely even to the very top of the tower.

I looked down to see that the blackness engulfed the staircase. After all, the illumination from my gloves could only extend so far. Something shifted in the blackness below, and it looked to be big. I decided that my best bet was to travel upward. At least I knew how far up it went. There was no telling what could be down there.

I made my way up the spiral staircase. There were some parts where it seemed that the way had been broken and fell away, but in those cases I had to climb over by using the railing. I was glad that my gloves had some grip to them. I would probably be in trouble otherwise.

I went up for quite a time. Likely my trek went for about a half an hour before I couldn't go up any farther. The stairs seemed to be in too rough a condition to be traveled up in safety. I decided I would try up there later, when I had found a way. I started going down the stairs once more, except I stopped at the first doorway I came to. It once again was frozen, so I thawed the lock and hinges and opened it.

Inside was a glistening room. It didn't have the levers of the one I saw earlier, but it had some sort of machine that resembled an engine. Gears covered the walls and scattered the floor. It looked like there were quite a few that had fallen from their mounts on the wall.

There was another one of those turtle statues in this room, except this one was bending over to pick up what seemed to be a lever that was lying on the floor. A crevice on the wall looked as if something fit into there, so I decided I would pick up the lever and find out.

After thawing the lever and melting the ice that encased the crevice, I put the lever into there. It seemed to be a perfect fit, but it didn't stay. I pointed my wand at the end of the lever for quite a while, until it started to turn red, and eventually sag. I did the same for the tip of the crevice for a while, and then connected the two, waiting for the extreme cold to do its work of wielding the two parts back together.

After that was done, I tried a little tug on the lever, but it didn't budge. I decided to look around it for the reason why. Sure enough, the gears it was connected to were stuck. I thawed those as well, and tried the lever once more. To my surprise, not only did it crank the gears, but when I pulled the lever down, the ones I had thawed began to move, as if propelled! I looked at the wall, and guessed that was the puzzle. I needed to get all the gears moving, until they reached that large engine-like machine that was in the wall. I pulled the lever back up, causing the gears to slow and stop, and got to work immediately.

The first thing I did was thaw all the gears on the wall. It was simple enough; warm all of them enough to make sure they spin again. I was surprised at how smoothly they spun after probably being frozen for so long. They didn't even need oiling.

After that was done, it was time for the real puzzle: finding out which gears fit where. It took me about an hour, but eventually all of the gears were back on the wall and thawed. I went over to the machine and warmed it with my energy wand until I was sure it was thawed enough to work. Well, whatever it did. I guessed I was about to find out.

I went back to the lever and pulled it down once more. This time, however, it was the whole wall that seemed to move. The gears that I had put in place caught each other and turned. First slowly, but eventually they began to speed up. I looked at the machine, which was now making a churning sound. I went over and found that it was warming up further. In fact, after a few minutes, the air around it seemed slightly warmer.

I was definitely open to warming up this room, so I went over to the door and closed it. I thought for a moment, and then slid a cache in place that looked like it was there to lock it. I tried the knob. Sure enough, it was locked.

I looked around the room and admired my handiwork. The gears were on the wall turning, and the engine was heating up the room. I thought I might as well stay here a while and make sure my Client player was doing fine.

I paced around the room, trying to find a comfortable place to sit. I found one near the door and went ahead and sat in it. It seemed like a simple polished wooden chair, except the whole thing was frozen stiff. I really needed to get over that. Of course everything in this place would be frozen. It's probably ten below in here. Well, not this room. Already it was probably a little warmer than the rest of the factory.

I turned on my holocomputer and pulled up my server program. It looked like Jessica was still sleeping, and Georgesprite was looking around the place. It seemed that the door to her bedroom was safely shut. There were imps on the other side, but they couldn't even make it to the door, let alone try to open it.

I looked and saw that her windows were barricaded as well. That was a good idea. She was thankfully safe for the night. I guess she should rest and get ready for the day ahead of her. To be honest, I sort of wondered what her land was like. The yard around her house wasn't frozen like mine was, and her house was light when she entered. It was dark outside her house now, but that was probably because it was night. My land seemed to already of been dark when I arrived. However, I wasn't sure if that was because it became night here sooner, or if it was just always dark.

I saw that her grist cache was a bit fuller though, so I built her house up to the first portal. She would probably appreciate that when she awoke.

I got off of the server, and thought for a moment. There was probably a way to spy on the other players that I could use, but even then that would take some alchemizing. Since I wasn't anywhere near something that could do that, though, I guessed I would just have to wait. Besides, I wanted to find out the secret of this factory.

Wait a minute. Someone sent me a message on steam. I opened it up and took a look.

I was hit by a moment of shock.

It was Jeremy.

_"Hey, I hope nothing messed up from me not making it into your session. You seriously wouldn't believe what has happened!"_

I was seriously relieved that he was alive!

_"What happened?"_ I asked.

_"Well, I lost connection the second time because of another meteor that hit near my house. The thing was, it somehow carried with it the Forge! I tried to connect again, but apparently everything was down. I thought I was done for. Todd got hold of me though, and now I'm in his session. Are you all ok?"_

_"Yeah, we're fine." _I messaged back,_ "We got another person to enter instead, and she connected to me. I'm actually at my land right now! My guide told me you weren't supposed to be in our session or something, but I'm definitely glad to see you're doing fine."_

_"Yeah, it's been crazy! When we started most of us weren't sure what we were doing. We got the hang of it though, but sadly not everyone made it. I've mostly been hanging out with Todd, but some of his other friends are here too. I'm actually the space player here! It's all well, but at times frog breeding gets pretty boring and I decide to do something else. It's all cool though."_

_"Frog breeding?" _I typed, confused.

_"Oh, hey, I have to go. I'll talk to you later, Lexie's in trouble again. It's nice to know that you guys are ok! I'll see you later, and hopefully it won't be a month again, haha."_

And with that he was offline. What? A month? What was he talking about? It's only been a day since the last time we talked.

I shrugged it off. Perhaps he was talking about something else. I would have to ask him next time he was online. It was really good to know that he didn't die, and I nice bonus to see that some of my other friends made it into the session.

It was getting warm in here, so I decided to take off my winter clothing and turning off their heating feature. I looked around. It seemed that while I was occupied the room gradually had gotten lighter. It seemed as if the bars on the walls were glowing. Ah, so that machine must have been a generator!

I surveyed the room once more. Everything looked like it was thawing nicely. In fact, if not for the ice in one corner and the water on the floor, I wouldn't have guessed this place had ever been frozen. The metal was no longer white and covered in frost. Not even the statue!

Wait a second, did that statue just move?

I carefully pulled out my energy wand, just in case the statue was somehow yet another hostile.

"Wow, what happened? I'm so sleepy." The statue said.

Holy crap, I don't think that's a statue. It just talked. I got ready to say something, and ready to attack just in case.

"You were frozen." I said, "I had to thaw you."

The turtle statue, or formally a statue, whirled around to face me. The look of surprise on its face was evident. I took a quick rundown on the thing to gage its threat level.

It looked to be about three feet tall and although it was a turtle, it stood on its hind legs. It looked more scared than threatened though, so I relaxed slightly.

"Are you... The Seer?" It asked.

"I don't think so." I said, slightly confused, "Who are you?"

"Oh my gosh, it really is the Seer! I can't believe it! This is the best day of my life!" The turtle yelled, running towards me. I hastily lifted up my wand and gave q quick burst of energy. Not enough to kill or even really harm it, but it still made it stop in its tracks and back away. "I'm so sorry! I'm sorry, Seer, please don't hurt me!" It pleaded.

"I'm not trying to hurt you." I said, lowering my wand slightly, "I'm just trying to figure out what happened."

"What? What happened?" It asked. I was surprised that it didn't remember that it was just frozen, but I thought I should probably reveal what I knew. After all, he probably would remember something useful.

"When I got here, this factory was covered with ice. Not a single machine that I know of was running, and pieces of machinery are scattered everywhere." I looked at him levelly and continued. "Everyone here was also frozen solid. After I got this room back together again and that generator running, this room thawed out, and I guess it brought you back to life. I would seriously appreciate it if you could give me any insight as to what happened, and where this place is."

The turtle just stared at me, evidently in shock. Poor guy, maybe I shouldn't have laid it on him so suddenly. Then again, if he was going to help me, it would be best if he knew it all right off hand, rather than breaking down again and again.

The turtle suddenly broke out of his trance. "That is soooooooo cooooool!" it squealed, running up to me again.

Okay, I was seriously not expecting that. I just closed my eyes and braced myself as the thing's wet cold arms encompassed me in an awful embrace. I really hoped these things didn't give you salmonella like the ones back on earth did.

Finally, the thing let go, and still seemed giddy. To be honest, I was beginning to second guess how reliable these things would be for information. I decided I should try another approach.

"Yeah, I guess it is. Say, since you are the first of your race to be revived, what do you say about being my sidekick?"

"Really?" It asked, eyes wide. I nodded.

The turtle squealed again and gave me another cold uncomfortable slimy hug. I managed to pry it off of me only after a whole minute had passed.

"Alright, but there are a few rules first. Okay?"

"Okay!" The turtle giddily responded.

"First of all, no more hugs, unless I ask for one, alright?" I said.

"Got it!"

"Second, you need to tell me everything I ask for to the best of your ability."

"Sure thing!" The turtle happily nodded, before running over to be and hugging me again."

"And third, could you please stop hugging me?"

I swear, what was wrong with it? Things completely frozen in ice aren't usually so full of energy. Especially when they had been thawed out literally only five minutes ago.

I managed to pry the turtle away once more. "Seriously, no hugging." I said, "If you want to hug something, hug this. And with that, I handed it the harmless Want of Light I still had on my person. "It is a wand that can shoot beams of light if used correctly. I figure if you're my sidekick, you might as well have a wand."

"Really? Oh my gosh! This is the best day ever!" The turtle squealed. He really was annoying, but at least he was going to try helping me.

To be honest, though, I actually didn't mind if he tagged along, as long as he didn't get in the way.


End file.
